title: Nanoscale free-standing magnetoelectric heteropillars.
abstract: Nanocomposites with a film-on-substrate geometry usually suffer from a large clamping effect from the substrate, inhibiting the elastic-interaction-mediated "product" property such as the magnetoelectric response in piezoelectric-magnetostrictive systems. Here we report a self-assembling strategy to synthesize nanoscaled free-standing magnetoelectric heteropillars. The degree of clamping from the substrate has been greatly reduced, which is manifested by enhanced piezoelectricity and isotropic magnetic behaviors. A combination of techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction provide additional evidence of stress release in the as-prepared nanocomposite. Moreover, as a benefit of this unconstrained structure, we are able to observe a large magnetic-field-induced polarization change of up to 11.5% at room temperature, demonstrating its potential application in future magnetoelectronic devices at the nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, 100875, Beijing, China. jxzhang@bnu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Jinxing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Houren
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Jiyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: H L W
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Chan